Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 8.djvu/216

 184 THE APRIL BOMBARDMENT. CHAP. VI. The forti- tude they needed for their task. Their want of ammu- nition. The sacri- fices they had to make in order to be ready to meet assaults. that practice of a Church which in peace-time our young Western Churches might spurn, the hour of battle gave dignity. At every step the commander thus addressing Easter words to his troops, was greeted, was followed, was cheered by the roar of their warlike 'hourrahs.' If thus cheered for a while by religious and festive distractions, the enemy was at all events entering on a task that demanded rare fortitude. Because forcing him to maintain a great parsi- mony of fire under a hot cannonade, the dearth of ammunition was torture ; whilst moreover it al- ways compelled him to harbour the ugly thought that, from this mere material want of sufficing barrels of gunpowder, Sebastopol might be des- tined to fall ; and, when he sought to parry the evil by borrowing a supply from the sea-forts or the unsunken ships, those resources were at first closed against him by signs that they all might be needed to meet an attack from the fleets. He was driven to the expedient of obtaining for his Flagstaff and Central Batteries a small supply of gunpowder taken from out of the infantry cart- ridges. And, because of the need that there was to keep troops in readiness for withstanding the expected assaults, he had to bear cruel losses ; so that, whilst the Allies by comparison were losing only a few from the fire their bombard- ment had challenged, he every day, whilst it lasted, was sending heavy numbers of his people to their graves on the Severnaya, or else — pain-